Michael Llodra lost 6-1, 6-4 to 14th seed Tommy Robredo in the first posted to WP.com: a quiet year for michael llodra round of this week’s Shanghai Masters tournament. Not a good year for the Frenchman so far; his ranking has dropped a career-high 34 (June, 2008) to 129.

Buy: At least that Lacoste Super Dry Stripe Polo looks refreshing. This was the company’s standard issue for all the men at the U.S. Open. Note the “tennis ball” green accent at the cuff and the solid block of the collar. TSF prefers the black version. $95 at Midwest Sports.

Robredo rolls: Spaniard Tommy Robredo has been slowly compiling a successful 2009 (he’s 15-3 in match wins so far), adding to last week’s Brasil Open title a trophy from the Copa Telmex in Buenos Aires. As a part of a nine-match winning streak, Tommy took out 2007 champ Juan Monaco 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (5).

Roddick’s revenge: Early bird got The Worm this week when Andy exacted revenge on Radek Stepanek‘s title win over the American at last week’s SAP Open. This time around, at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, the top seed only needed two sets to take out Stepanek: 7-5, 7-5.

As you may have heard, Roddick is skipping this the ATP Dubai stop in support of Shahar Peer. Good for him.

Teenage triumph: And on the women’s side of this combined tournament, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka upset top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the finals of Memphis 6-1, 6-3. This is Victoria’s second title of the year (and of her career). She was merely playing catch-up to Wozniacki, whose breakout 2008 produced three titles.

“I am not here to rock any boat or upset people, I am just here to do things that are right,” Williams said. “And I think right things are already happening next week and right things will happen next year.”

Props to Virginie and Asics for maxing out her airtime. They had her in another colorway of her separates, this one in black with pink trim.

French fracas: We’re a little sad that the French smorgasbord in Marseille has come to an end (Arnaud Clement, Youzhny, Tursunov, Dimitrov, Vliegen, Seppi, Safin, Chardy, Bolelli), and even sadder that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga denied us a post-win striptease from runner-up Michael Llodra. But thumbs-up to Tsonga for bagging his second title of the year.

Like this:

Here’s a look at the black and white Olympics standard issue by adidas that we wrote about last week. Thankfully, the kits they’ve provided individual federations are much more colorful. Here are three below:

Andy Murray put aside his Fred Perry to wear the uniform provided by the LTA.

And the French team showed off a variety of pieces, including this polo on Michael Llodra…

…this tank on Gael Monfils…

…and the women’s separates on Pauline Parmentier.

And Chris Guccione and the rest of the Australians get a version in their national sports colors: green and yellow.

We’re always eagerly anticipating the standard issues that Lacoste doles out for each Grand Slam, and the ones for Roland Garros turned out just fine — at least for the ladies.

Gisela Dulko wore the halter from the Fine Stripe line in her loss to Alize Cornet in the second round. Cornet, the 19th seed, also wore the tank but spaghetti-strap style; she lost to Agnieszka Radwanska in the round after.

Mathilde Johansson faced Serena Williams in the second round. She wore the Racerback Tennis Dress with detachable flower, $145. Meanwhile, Petra Cetkovska (middle and right) put on a layer when it got a little chilly.

And Mike Frey over at Tennishead continues to help out TSF with this photo of this player (can anyone help me out with a name?) wearing the polo.

Unlike the 2007 French Open, which saw Lacoste give their male sponsors the cutest orange and white polos, 2008 was way bland. Michael Llodra and Jeremy Chardy — as delicious as they are — couldn’t quite bring this Heritage Check Print Polo to life. (If you want to grab the jacket, it’s still available at lacoste.com.)

As usual, Arnaud Clement and Fabrice Santoro are off doing their own things.

Aww. Look at these two. I would make the same faces if I took out the Bryan Brothers 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 in the finals of the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas. Michael Llodra teamed up with fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau because Llodra’s regular partner, Arnaud Clement, has been nursing a left ankle injury (among other things).

The rest: See the rest of the week’s trophies — including the ones from Dubai and Bangalore — after the cut…

Vroom: Russian Maria Sharapova proved that her Australian Open title was no joke, backing it up with her second title of the year at the $2.5 million Qatar Total Open. The Under Armour of opponent Vera Zvonareva was no match for Masha — she took Vera out 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.

Vera takes home a nice trophy.

The men:Andy Roddick — who looks a little… chubby? weathered? (Does he look different to anyone else? Is it facial hair?) — continued to wow the San Jose crowd with a winning performance, besting Radek Stepanek 6-4, 7-5 in the final. (FYI, Andy’s won this event twice before, and made the semis two other times.)

Meanwhile, David Nalbandian‘s back troubles disappeared this week during the Copa Telmex in Buenos Aires. He beat compatriot Jose Acasuso 3-6,7-6 and 6-4. I’m soooo ready for the next Yonex colorway. Yellow and red are too intense for the clay. Unless you’re Guga Kuerten.

In Rotterdam, Michael Llodra and his mouth continue to build on their early-season confidence with a second title in 2008. Llodra beat Robin Soderling 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6(4).

And this streaker, who made a statement at the Rotterdam final, is exactly why I am not vegan. Improper nutrition would lead me to do redundant things like writing “Vegan Streaker” on myself — as if the crowd could confuse me as a linesman. When he gets out of jail, can someone get him some beef?

As with any Grand Slam, plenty of silver (both as cups and platters) were doled out to runner-ups and winners of the various events at the Australian Open.

The team of Jonathan Ehrlich and Andy Ram capped a historic weekend for Israeli sports by becoming the first Israeli team to win a Grand Slam title. Their opponents in the 7-5, 7-6 (4) win were the defending Wimbledon champs, Michael Llodra and Nono Clement. Suffice to say Ram and Ehrlich’s celebration is exactly how the Frenchmen would’ve done it.

More: The women’s doubles. mixed doubles, and quad wheelchair winners after the cut…

Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, the reigning Wimbledon champs, can beef up their trophy case with an Australian Open title this year. They’ll face the Israeli team of Andy Ram and Jonathan Ehrlich in the finals after beating Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie 6-3, 7-6 (9).

Aww, look at them celebrating their semifinal win. FYI, they’re both wearing Lacoste Repels. I was weary of the honeycombs at first… but it’s a cool design pattern. (By the way, I know I said the shoes would drop in the Spring, but I haven’t seen them for sale stateside yet.)

Like this:

Frenchman Michael Llodra replaces Nole Djokovic as the singles champion of the Adelaide International on Sunday. Clad in Lacoste, Llodra defeatedJarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4 to take his second career ATP title.

Llodra celebrated by jumping into the Torrens River. Much like Nole, this guy tends to take off his shirt when celebrating. So everyone wins when he does.

Arnaud Clement and his doubles partner Michael Llodra (not pictured) have not been doing so well post-season; their seventh-seeded pairing lost all three of their round-robin matches at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai, first to Knowles and Nestor 2-6, 7-5, 10-5, then to Dlouhy and Vizner 3-6, 6-3, 10-5, and finally to Aspelin and Knowles 6-3, 7-5.

Like this:

Texan Andy Roddick heads into his U.S. Open quarterfinal match against Roger Federer with a 1-13 losing record.

This week, Andy added a darker version (above) of his Lacoste Short Block Polo. I prefer this colorway over the white version he debuted earlier this fall. If Roger wears his “Darth Federer” get-up to the quarters, it’ll be an all-black affair.

Flashback: The two last met at the semis of the Aussie Open, with Roger emerging victorious with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 win (in 83 minutes). After the win, Mirka went up to the World No. 1 and said, “Darling, you are a maniac.” Haha, I can’t picture her saying that. (quote from Quest for Perfection: The Roger Federer Story; New Chapter Press, $24.95)

Other Lacoste: The French clothier don’t exactly innovate with their clothes, but we liked what we saw:

Richard Gasquet got his own shirt.

While Michael Llodra, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, and Sebastien Grosjean all wore the standard issue. (If Nike‘s looked like this, none of us would be griping, right?)

Nope, I’m not done with Wimbledon yet:TENNIS magazine’s Peter Bodo winds down his grass season blogging with some anecdotes; first up is this entry on the on-court antics of French doubles team Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.

More tennis marketing ploys: This year’s China Open held an open call for a theme song and received over 1,300 entries. And their “Kappa Tennis Cheering Squad Show” (what an awesome name!!) will send winners to compete in the final Beijing round of the Miss World competition.

The clean whites of Lacoste got some more airtime today when Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra won the men’s doubles title over the Bryan brothers 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

A word on their trophy from Off the Baseline: “The Gentlemen’s Doubles Championship trophy is a silver challenge cup, which was presented to the All England Club in 1884 by the Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club who sponsored the original doubles play in 1879. The Gentlemen’s Doubles was played at Oxford University from 1879-1883 but moved to Wimbledon in 1884.”